SAFFRON'S SOUTH BET

By elevating RSS veteran C.P. Radhakrishnan as VP nominee, BJP blends loyalty and identity in the party's bid to crack the Tamil Nadu fortress

- ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

AS THE BJP'S PARLIAMENTARY BOARD MET IN NEW DELHI ON August 16, nobody would have called the task at hand a routine one. The NDA's vice-presidential nominee was going to be named, after all. That too, to fill the space left by a contentious departure. But the final choice restored things to a comfortable groove for the BJP—a sense of desired order, going even beyond the routine.

The anointed one was C.P. Radhakrishnan, currently Maharashtra governor, a two-time Coimbatore MP before that and, more importantly, a former RSS state head in Tamil Nadu. It was straight out of the Narendra Modi playbook: ideological loyalty and identity fused in one figure, as the prime minister's strategic choices have preferred of late. As the chosen name passes through the filter Of the electoral college, Radhakrishnan will become the first former RSS office-bearer to occupy a constitutional office of such stature, underscoring how the Sangh’s parallel hierarchy is steadily converging with that of the Indian state.

The shortlist reportedly had another contender: Karnataka governor Thawar Chand Gehlot, a prominent Dalit face from Madhya Pradesh. Geography tipped the balance. For decades, the BJP has struggled to break into the south beyond Karnataka. Modi has invested considerable capital in outreach to Tamil Nadu and Kerala, reorganising state units and stitching alliances. Elevating a Tamil leader with unimpeachable RSS credentials—less than a year before the state election—comes as a safe experiment in a laboratory on the frontier of saffron politics.